Inventory of clothing printing technology, advantages and disadvantages, design and application suggestions
In general, the most commonly used clothing printing can be divided into the following categories.
There are silk screen printing (can be divided into dozens of subcategories), thermal transfer printing, sublimation, and inkjet printing. Each of these printing methods has disadvantages and advantages.
animated cover
Silk screen printing (screen printing, including the most common offset printing, watermarking, etc.):
Suitable for mass production;
The hand feel is not as soft as that of inkjet products;
There shouldn’t be too many colors, and they need to be toned;
Color gradient and other effects cannot be reflected;
Silk screen products are usually not breathable.
Screen offset printing
Thermal transfer printing (commonly known as pyrography):
No need for plate making, just print in one piece;
The image is realistic and can be close to the photo effect;
It feels hard and not breathable.
Thermal transfer
Sublimation (usually said to be digital printing):
The product has good breathability and good hand feel;
Sublimation transfer ink is professional, and the heating time and pressure are relatively long;
Fixation and color effects are the worst among all transfer technologies;
Suitable for customers who have high requirements for wearing comfort and low requirements for bright colors.
Sublimation
Many designers don’t know the difference between thermal transfer and sublimation. In fact, they mainly include these three:
1. Time and temperature
Thermal transfer takes 10 seconds and 150 degrees, while sublimation takes 25 seconds and 220 degrees.
2. Feel
The heat transfer pattern is covered on the fabric, so it will have an airtight and hard feel to the touch. Dye-sublimation sublimates the pattern into the fabric, so it feels the same as the fabric.
3. Fabric
Thermal transfer printing is suitable for printing on cotton, knitted, non-woven fabrics, bags and other fabrics. Sublimation is only suitable for transfer to light-colored (usually white) chemical fiber fabrics (mainly polyester).
Inkjet printing (digital direct printing in the name of designers):
The image is realistic and can be close to the photo effect;
It has good breathability, soft hand feel, rich colors, and the gradient effect can be perfectly reflected;
Can be printed on both dark and light colors, with good color fixation (especially fabrics containing more than 50% cotton);
Solve the most difficult problem of cotton printing in the textile industry. But the unit price is higher than the above printing types.
Digital inkjet printing
Let’s talk about the advantages and disadvantages of several printing processes in detail.
The following are all in the screen printing category:
watermark
advantage:
1. Soft to the touch. It will not affect the original texture of the fabric, so it is more suitable for large-area printing patterns.
2. The color paste penetrates into the fabric fibers, and the firmness is higher than that of offset printing.
3. Good breathability. 4. The price is cheaper than offset printing.
shortcoming:
1. Poor coverage.
2. Printing middle colors on mid-tone fabrics can easily produce color contrast. For example, printing blue on red fabrics can easily produce unwanted purple, etc.
3. When printing multi-color water slurry, color changes are likely to occur.
Design application suggestions:
It is more suitable for printing on light fabrics, such as chiffon and thin T-shirt fabrics.
Printing is very suitable for cotton fabrics, but try to use light-colored fabrics, preferably white.
It is best to control the color types within 5 types, firstly for cost considerations, and secondly to avoid color cross-fertilization.
offset printing
advantage:
1. Colors are more vivid.
2. Any desired color can be obtained through blending, and pearlescent powder can be added.
3. Ultra-fine copper/aluminum/tin and other metal powders achieve special color visual effects.
4. Add foaming agent/powder to mix and print, then heat to achieve three-dimensional foaming effect.
5. The special three-dimensional effect of protrusion can be achieved by repeating printing more than 8 times.
shortcoming:
1. It feels hard.
2. It will stick in hot weather.
3. The more colors there are, the higher the cost.
Design application suggestions:
The printing area cannot be large because it feels not breathable when worn in summer.
The fabric should not be too light or thin, otherwise the weight of the glue will affect the overall effect of the garment.
More suitable for casual wear, sportswear, and street wear.
ink printing
advantage:
1. Bright and delicate color.
2. The firmness is particularly good.
3. The details are expressed with precision.
shortcoming:
1. It has relatively poor air permeability and is prone to odor, so it is not suitable for waterproof coated fabrics.
2. The smell during the production process is unpleasant, and the solvent used is easy to evaporate.
3. Coarse grain fabrics should not be printed with ink.
4. The stencil has high precision, and the stencil printed with thermosetting ink needs to be dried at high temperature, otherwise it will not dry even if it is left for a month.
Design application suggestions:
Mainly for windbreakers, nylon, leather, plastic, down fabrics, etc., fabrics with dense texture.
Advantages and disadvantages of other small printing processes:
Discharge printing
A type of process that uses active raw materials to react chemically with fabrics to remove the color of the fabric and replace it with the required printing color.
Discharge printing working process
advantage:
1. The feel is relatively soft.
2. The colors are bright, including white, colorful and denim.
shortcoming:
1. The choice of color is difficult.
2. Production is difficult to control.
3. Color predictability is not easy.
4. The proofing cycle is relatively long and the cost is high.
Design application suggestions:
It is very suitable for use in styles that need to reflect natural and layered patterns. Denim, twill cotton, and Oxford cloth are all very suitable.
How to distinguish whether it is discharge printing?
If the background color on both sides of the fabric is the same (because it is piece dyeing), and the pattern is white or a different color from the background color, and the background color is darker, it can be confirmed that it is a discharge-dyed printed fabric.
Careful inspection of the reverse side of the pattern will reveal traces of the original background color (the reason for this phenomenon is that the chemicals that destroy the dye cannot fully penetrate into the reverse side of the fabric).
light changes seal
advantage:
Several types of high-tech ultraviolet light are added to the dye to excite Mars microparticles, and the color changes instantly when exposed to ultraviolet light.
shortcoming:
Easy to crack and not washable.
Design application suggestions:
Same as offset printing.
paint print
Paints, unlike dyes, cannot bond with fibers. Pigment printing can be used for the processing of any fiber textiles. It is more superior in printing blended and interwoven fabrics. The process is simple, the color spectrum is wide, and the flower shape outline is clear, but the hand feel is not good and the rubbing fastness is not high.
advantage:
1. Lower cost.
2. The required process is the least, and steaming and steaming are usually not required.
3. Available in bright, rich colors and can be used for all textile fibers.
4. There will be almost no large color differences on different batches of fabrics.
5. Good light fastness and dry cleaning fastness.
shortcoming:
1. With continuous washing or dry cleaning, the pigment printing will gradually fade and the color will become lighter and lighter. Dark colors fade more easily than light or pastel colors.
How to distinguish pigment printing from dye printing?
The difference in hardness between the printed and unprinted parts of the same piece of fabric can distinguish pigment printing from dye printing.
The paint-printed areas will feel slightly harder and perhaps thicker than the unprinted areas. If the fabric is printed with dye, there will be no obvious difference in hardness between the printed parts and the unprinted parts. Dark paint prints are likely to feel harder and less flexible than lighter or lighter colors.
Hot stamping and silver foil
After printing with special materials, electrochemical printing is applied to the clothes through heat transfer to obtain a metallic effect.
advantage:
The process is simple and relatively easy to operate.
shortcoming:
1. The quality of hot stamping foil is unstable, and the high import price is not conducive to small batch production.
2. The washing water resistance is not good, so experienced employees are required to operate the production.
flocking
advantage:
It has a strong three-dimensional feel, soft hand feel and good warmth retention.
shortcoming:
1. It is easy to fall off when the number of washing times increases.
2. There will be sticky hair.